Sarah Clark and Nicole Beaumont, are the Australian artistic collaboration, Clark Beaumont. Using performance, video and installation, their practice explores ideas and constructs surrounding identity, interpersonal relationships, intimacy and female subjectivity. Their collaboration focuses on their individual and intersubjective experiences, using themselves as the subjects of their work and, their collaboration, as a proxy for relationships in general. Their works often explore the intersection between performativity and authenticity, as well as the shifting dynamic between performer and viewer.

Clark Beaumont have presented live performances, videos and installations, nationally and internationally since 2010. Notably, in 2013, the collaboration exhibited work in Kaldor Public Art Project’s 13 Rooms, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist & Klaus Biesenbach. In 2014, they held a solo exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, and were selected as the QAGOMA Melville Haysom Memorial Art Scholarship recipient. Recently, they have presented live performances at the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (Adelaide), Monash University Museum of Art (Melbourne) and Queensland University of Technology Art Museum as part of Performance Now, curated by Roselee Goldberg. In 2015, the duo participated in Marina Abramovic’s Australian artist residency and exhibited in QAGoMA’s survey exhibition ‘GOMA Q: Queensland Contemporary Art’. They are currently undertaking a series of residencies in Berlin, a project that is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.

During their residency with MOMENTUM, Clark Beaumont will develop a new one-hour live performance work, The O Zone, which will unpack two of the greatest issues of our time – Climate Change, and Sex – simultaneously. In the artists’ own words:

“Climate Change is a controversial topic that is too big for everyday folks to understand & actively care about for a sustained period of time; our eyes fog over. Yet our planet needs collective action now, so what can we do? What keeps people’s attention? Sex! Sex sells, but sex is mostly only used & discussed in our culture in a one-dimensional way, one that’s objectifying, glossy & patriarchal. The work will playfully weave between the two topics, using each subject to disarm the other & open up the complex issues & perspectives surrounding both.

We will use these topics to question & analyse ourselves, our behaviour, ethics & values. We will examine the power that emotions have over logic on our brains, how we are hardwired to value short-term over long-term rewards & thinking, & how both of these attributes stop us from being able to see ourselves & our world clearly. The work will mash up written & found text – including facts, estimations, intimate thoughts & personal stories – as well as organic & austere choreography.

Following on from our Abramovic residency in 2015, our performance practice has naturally expanded to include a cross-disciplinary approach between Theatre and Visual Art. The residency broadened our understanding of Contemporary Performance Art & provoked us to consider the medium’s relevance now, as well as moving forward. This development has been excelled by our time in Berlin, arguably the epicentre of contemporary performing arts, where we have experienced ground-breaking performances & engaged in fruitful artistic dialogues with practitioners from diverse backgrounds.We will develop this project in Berlin during our MOMENTUM residency, under the mentorship of curator Dr. Rachel Rits-Volloch, and in collaboration with Berlin choreographer, Mirjam Soegner.”

[Clark Beaumont, 2017]
 

Building on their most recent work, Clark Beaumont will use MOMENTUM’s facilities within the historic Kunstquartier Bethanien as a rich resource to experiment, develop and refine their use of theatrical elements within their practice. The O Zone will also be shown at the ACCA (Victoria) group exhibition, Greater Together later in 2017.
 
 
 

With thanks to the generous support of: